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7 revisions | Angelique Fuentes at May 06, 2020 03:03 PM | |
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3222 Johnie Bake was born at O'Fallon's Bluffs, on the banks of the South Platte River, in Western Nebraska, in the year 1870. His father is the well-known "Old Lew Baker, the ranchman," and was the owner of Lew Baker's O'Fallons' Bluff Ranch, in its da an important landmark. This place was one of the most noted on the great overland trail- the scenes, incidents, Indian attacks, etc., belonging to exhaustive pages in the early history of that, in old times, exposed and dangerous section. Here Johnie's babyhood was passed in unconscious proximity to dangers seldom courted by the most sturdy, and his first "bug-a-boo" was not of the maternal imagining, but an existing fact, continually threatening in the shape of the heartless, savage Sioux. Cradled amid such pioneer surroundings, and dandled on the knees of all the most celebrated frontiersmen, the genuine old buckskin trappers- the first frontier invaders- his childhood witnessed the declining glories of the buffalo hunter's paradise (it being the heart of their domain), and the advent of his superior, "the long horn of Texas," and his necessary companion, "the Cow-boy." The appearance of these brave, generous, free-hearted, self-sacrificing rough riders of the plains, literally living in the saddle, enduring exposure, hunger, risk of health and life as a duty to the employer, gave him his first communion with society beyond the sod cabin threshold, and impressed his mind, as well as directed his aspirations, to an emulation of the manly qualities necessary to be ranked a true American Cow-boy. When the Pony Express, the Stage Coach, and the wagon-trains were supplanted by the steam horse, Baker's station became useless, and "Old Lew" removed bag and baggage to North Platte, a little town of magical railroad growth. Here he built a fine house, which became the headquarters of the "old timers," and many a tenderfoot can remember the thrilling incidents related "life on the trail"- a life that now belongs alone to history and to romance- while "Old Lew" dispensed hospitality like a prince. But this | 3222 |
